Friday Night Lights 4.12 – When Everything Comes Crashing Down

It turns out Mrs. Cafferty is calling for Principal Mrs. Coach’s dismissal. People are even calling the Taylor home just to hurl insults at her.

Superintendent Paul comes by and suggests to Mrs. Coach that she make a statement to ease the town’s concern. He gives her an apology the board wants her to read. She doesn’t feel good about any of this especially when she didn’t do anything wrong.

Mrs. Coach goes to a lawyer who tells her she has a case for a wrongful termination suit. But he says cases like this could drag out for years. She heads to school and there are people protesting at the gate and pounding on her car as she drives by.

Becky brings by Skeeter the dog and much of Tim’s other stuff. Billy calls and says the baby’s coming! Tim rushes to the hospital. Billy is all hyped up and gets himself kicked out of the delivery room.

After more than 38 hours, she finally gives birth to a baby boy, Steven Hannibal Riggins.

Tim takes Becky back to the plot of land he now officially owns. He tells her how happy he is now. Everything seems to be going their way.

Landry comes by to bring over Jess’ new bike to replace the one he ran over. But Jess is more concerned for Vince.

Well, maybe. Later at Big Mary’s Ray’s BBQ Ribs, Jess makes some brisqut for Landry and gives him her iPod with a playlist (of crowd noise) for him. Meanwhile, Kennard comes by to tell Vince about finding the guy that killed Calvin. When Landry and the other guys finish lunch, Vince calls him over to tell him he’s a good guy and that Jess only deserves the best and to make her happy.

Later that night, Jess comes to confront Vince about saying that stuff to Landry. But Vince is getting ready to leave with Kennard to get revenge. She tries to stop him. It’s no use. He’s gone. She slinks to the floor.

Kennard tells him what they’ll do, their plan to get the guy right in the ass. Vince can’t take it. He gets out of the car and walks away. But Kennard won’t let him. He points the gun in his face, but knocks his face and tells him he can’t get out of this that easily.

Vince runs back home and finds Jess sitting at his doorstep. He tells her he didn’t do it. They look at each other, hug, cry, and who knows what else they did afterwards. Turns out Landry’s been waiting for Jess at the BBQ, but her Aunt Byrd lets him know she isn’t coming. He hands her the bike lock and leaves.

The Panthers coaches are at the Lions field complaining about the horrible field conditions not being up to par and possibly being unsafe for the almost-playoff-bound Panthers.

“We’ve been playing on this field all year, and not one lion has fallen from the pride.”

The Panthers suggest a neutral field. But the conference director asks Coach who promises the field will be the right shape by Friday. The last game of the season is a big one. Panthers win, they go to the playoffs. Lions win, well… it’ll be sweet.

The team comes together to fix the field themselves. They’ll be practicing at Carroll Park this week to keep the field pristine for Friday. But Luke won’t be taking part. Coach just wants him to take care of his hip.

Later that night, Landry rallies the team together to screw up the Panthers field. If the Lions can’t practice on their own field, then the Panthers can’t practice on theirs. The next morning, the Panthers head out for morning practice to find their field full of toothpicks. Coach Wade tells his team to clear the field.

Over at Carroll Park, Coach is relaying the news that the Panthers spent two hours cleaning up. The teams laughs but no one owns up to whose idea it was. Coach happily punishes his team for the prank by running jingle jangles drills until Lance (whom I believe Coach knows is the only one who could come up with a prank like that) can make a 40 yard field goal.

The next night, three trucks storm Lions field and completely destroy it. Roughing up the field, pulling down the goal posts. The next morning, they survey the damage. The field is worse off now than it was even when Coach first arrived.

Mrs. Coach calls Coach after hearing what’s happened… with Wade in the room as well, wanting to tell Coach Taylor that if any of his players were involved, they’ll be suspended and won’t play at Friday’s game. Sure. Coach asks to talk to his wife privately and they comfort each other.

The conference director has the two teams meet to discuss the situation. Joe McCoy says they’ve contacted the parents of all the Panthers players and all have given their sons alibis. (Of course.) “This isn’t retaliation… for the toothpicks,” he says which incenses Buddy who says that was a simple prank. The two sides start raising their voices, coach quiet through it all.

The director calls them to order, “… the thing we got to remember is, in the end, this is just a football game.”
Coach doesn’t think so. “Hey William, you know what? My family’s been getting threatening phone calls all week long, all times of the night. My home has been vandalized and my field has been destroyed. So don’t patronize us and tells us it’s just a damn football game.”

The director apologizes. He says he’s been on the phone with every school around, but with Thanksgiving coming up and the short notice, the only possible field left is in West Dillon. The room gets filled with raised voices once again, Coach sitting there, not wanting to deal with the crap.

He heads home and tells Mrs. Coach the game will be at Hermann Field. Mrs. Coach says she’s going to make a statement. Poor Mr. and Mrs. Coach. 🙁 The phone rings and he takes it and slams it on the table.

Episode Thoughts
Well, what an emotional episode. From great highs like the hilarious scenes at the hospital to incredible lows like the Lions getting punched in the face again and Mrs. Coach again getting thrown to the wolves.

First, nothing you do in Dillon is without repercussions and it was no different for Vince. He’s gotten himself in some deep crap and it won’t be that easy to dig himself out of it. But good for him, he may just have won Jess back which now leaves poor Landry out in the cold again.

Then the Riggins boys… we all expected it not to end well for them. And it doesn’t look too good for them moving forward either. Will the law finally catch up to them? Of course after such a great high for both Tim and Billy, they come crashing back down.

And of course the Taylors. What evil the Panthers have become in just a year, yeah? I can’t believe, but am so pumped to see the season finale next week and of course it has to be the Panthers vs. Lions. Emotions will be high!

Knowing Coach and Mrs. Coach, they can get through these tough times together, as they always do. But it sucks having to see them suffer though.

EPISODE 4.12 – LABORING
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